Sunday, January 29, 2006

The Home Remodeling Show

Saturday we went to a home remodeling show down by the Atlanta Airport. We are sort of in the market for some things to be done to our house, such as a room built under our den that we had added about a dozen years ago, The space underneath would be a great storage area if it had walls – well, it is a great storage area now, but it is also an eyesore. So, we want some type of under pending and maybe replace the support poles . And we are also in the market to redo the kitchen again, redoing the floor and counter tops.

The home remodeling show we went to was held in an old closed discount store. I think there were 130 booths, all ready to charm you and show you why they are special. It seemed that almost everyone was going to have a giveaway drawing in the new future, so they would do all they could to get you to fill out a card for the drawing. I sort of expect in about a week or less we will be start being seized by greasy hair sunglasses with sunglasses and a clipboard, showing how they have just what we needed.

Of the whole show, I think only 3 showed any kind of promise, so those three I am looking forward for them to call and set up an appointment, but the rest that call, I will just have to swat them away like gnats.

One lady, while telling us her company’s sales pitch kept looking upward… I thought she was telling about a specific structure that she was presently looking at, so I looked up to and there was nothing there that we would be interested in. As we walked away, I figured out why she was looking up – that was the way she was recalling what she memorized for her sales pitch.

One booth reminded me of the old fashion infomercial. A quick talking sales type of person and his lovely teenage assistant had a counter top with several plates of different kind of meat morsels he cooked on the little gadget he was demonstrating. It looked kind of like a flying saucer, if the aliens were the size of mice. Or, it also looked like a fancy hubcap. It was a round contraction that had one metal doodad sitting on a different looking doodad. The bottom one had a liquid in it and it would give off a steam of that liquid to keep it moist while it cooked. He said you can cook it on stove tops, in ovens, on grills, on your camping grill… gad! There seem to be no limit what it could do. It also said it was smokeless and the fats would drip into the liquid in the lower flat, then its flavor would fizzle back up to the meat to make them tasty. They looked tasty, but he didn’t offer us to try the taste test.

He said he was authorized by the manufacturer to sell these great items for only $39.95 which was about half what it retails for in fine stores. And for today only the manufacturer authorized him to give us two for the price of one.

He looked like the kind of salesman that used to set up his table on a street corner, and snap it shut like a suitcase if a policeman happened to walk by.

How could we refuse? We bought one and received two.

Tonight we tried the thing we bought. We tried pork chops. The meat cooked slower than I have thought it should. It took almost a full hour to cook it, maybe between 50 and 55 minutes. But, it did taste very good – favorable and moist.

Tbat is right, it did cook, slowly, which brings out the best taste anyway, so no complaints there. HOWEVER - I typed the blob as a break before washing the dishes. The thing was virtually impossible to clean 100%. The fat fizzled and drip down into the liquid pan, which then mixed with the wine, and on one side it turned to black hardened rock-like mess. We let it soak for a couple of hours, but finally had to chip away on it with a screw-driver, then, with brillo pads, reduced the black stuff to just a couple of unmovable chunks.Yep, a two-fer-one deal sucks us in everytime! The market analysts know how to handle us fools.

The first step towards successful Home Improvement Remodeling is to find out how much your home is presently worth. The next thing you need to know is what is the top sales price in your area - for totally updated and refurbished homes - of the same approximate size as your home. The difference between the present value of your home and the ceiling price of 'like' homes in your area is your maximum home improvement remodeling budget for all and any works you plan to do around your home. http://contractor-remodeling-home-repair.blogspot.com.